The Hiawatha Public Library is hosting a school supply drive as part of our Libraries Rock! Summer Reading Program! According to the Backpack Index, an annual survey of the cost of school supplies and other expenses, in 2017 the supply list for an elementary school student cost about $650. School supplies donated at the Hiawatha Public Library will help students and staff at Hiawatha Elementary School with some of these expenses.

Supplies needed include:

Magic Markers

Pencils

Crayons

Notebooks

Colored Pencils

Scissors

​Backpacks

Supplies may be dropped off in the school bus near the front desk. The school supply drive will run until July 31, 2018.

Libraries Rock, the 2018 Summer Reading Program, will be held at the Hiawatha Public Library from June 4 – July 28. We have reading programs for all ages, including the addition of the Baby Bump Book Club for people who are pregnant! Participants in each of the programs will be able to earn prizes and enter drawings for reading and completing various activities.

As part of Libraries Rock the Hiawatha Public Library will be holding a School Supply Drive for students and staff at Hiawatha Elementary School. The library will accept donations of new school supplies throughout the Summer Reading Program.

Special events will be held at the Hiawatha Public Library throughout the summer. Please visit Summer Reading 2018 for more information, to register, and to print reading and activity logs.

We encourage everyone to share their participation in Libraries Rock with us on social media using the hashtags #CorridorrReads. Add it to photos of your favorite summer reads, lists of books you’ve checked out at your library, or a program or event you plan to attend. We even have additional hashtags to get you started. Each week during the summer reading program, libraries will use the following hashtags to generate conversation:

Monday: #choosekindness – share example of how you are choosing to be kind or how someone was kind to you

Wednesday: #summershelfie – show us your bookshelf or a fun display at your library

Thursday: #weekendreads – what are you reading this weekend?

We will give away a piece of library swag each week during the summer to someone who participates in the #CorridorReads campaign. In order to win the drawing, you must follow one of the participating libraries on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, post a photo and include the hashtag #CorridorReads in the caption.

The Hiawatha Public Library is excited to announce that the popular on-demand video streaming service Kanopy is now available for free to residents of Hiawatha. Hiawatha residents can access Kanopy by visiting http://hiawatha.kanopy.com.

After a simple sign-up using an email address and library card Hiawatha residents can stream up to 5 films a month on demand instantly. Films can be streamed from any computer, television, mobile device or platform by downloading the Kanopy app for iOS, Android, AppleTV, Chromecast or Roku.

Kanopy showcases more than 30,000 of the world’s best films, including award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, and world cinema with collections from Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Samuel Goldwyn, The Orchard, The Great Courses, PBS and thousands of independent filmmakers.

With the motto of “thoughtful entertainment,” Kanopy provides Hiawatha residents with access to films of unique social and cultural value; films that are often difficult or impossible to access elsewhere, and programming that features diversity, with a wide array of foreign language films, films on race, and current affairs.

Adult Services Librarian Erin Zaputil says, “We are thrilled to be able to offer Kanopy to Hiawatha residents. With offerings such as The Great Courses, and independent and foreign films we believe Kanopy will be a great addition to our collection and will help meet the call for streaming content.”

The Kanopy collection includes indie hits like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, classic masterpieces like Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Seven Samurai, and award-winning documentaries like the 2017 Oscar®-nominated I Am Not Your Negro.

Kanopy was founded in 2008 by CEO Olivia Humphrey as an educational tool for colleges and universities. More than 5 million Kanopy users stream the most acclaimed movies and documentaries from award-winning filmmakers, and experience the best in independent, classic film, and world cinema.

This tutorial is available from the Hiawatha Academy to help patrons learn how to use Kanopy. For more information please call the library at 319-393-1414.

Do your kids love the Wimpy Kid or Geronimo Stilton books? How about Stick Dog or Dork Diaries? There’s a name for these-- Hybrid Fiction---and it is all the rage. Like picture books, the illustrations help convey the meaning of the text and like graphic novels, the text helps convey the meaning of the illustrations. At Hiawatha Public Library, Captain Underpants and Big Nate fly off the shelf and no one fears The Notebook of Doom. Hybrid fiction is the perfect gateway read for kids who miss picture books, love comic books but want to up the language content. And did I mention humor? Generally, this genre is belly laugh funny.

Publishers are clamoring to fill the demand for new hybrid fiction titles and I am enthusiastically clamoring to add new titles and series to Hiawatha’s collection. Meanwhile readers of all ages, here is your “If you like Wimpy Kid books” list of books and series.

#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving, held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This giving movement has been built by individuals, families, organizations, businesses and communities in all 50 states and in countries around the world. Millions of people have come together to support and champion the causes they believe in and the communities in which they live.

This #GivingTuesday please help us Make Room for Imagination by giving to the capital campaign to expand and renovate the Hiawatha Public Library! Donations may be made online, or you may mail a check.

Be sure to visit social media to share your participation by using the hashtag #GiveWhereYourHeartIs, and to help spread the word about #GivingTuesday!

The Hiawatha Public Library is excited to once again offer Food for Fines. A partnership of the Metro Library Network, Food for Fines gives patrons the opportunity to remove library fines from their accounts while also helping their communities! All food donations will benefit the HACAP Food Reservoir.

From November 1 - November 30 patrons may donate one non-perishable food item for each $1 owed. Food for Fines donations may only be applied to library fines for overdue materials, and may not be used toward lost or damaged materials. The libraries and HACAP will not accept dented cans, glass containers, or foods with past expiration dates.

All of the Metro Library Network libraries will also accept food donations from people who would like to share an act of kindness by helping pay someone else’s library fines, as well as food donations from those who have no library fines but would like to help prevent hunger in our communities.

Through a similar program last year, the Metro Library Network libraries donated 7,328 pounds of food to HACAP. We look forward to sharing our continued commitment to helping all families within our communities have access to food.

The Hiawatha Public Library will be a satellite voting location on Tuesday, October 24th from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Ballots for the November 7th Hiawatha City Election will be available. For more information about the upcoming election please visit Linn County Election Services.

Join us to learn more about our exciting plans to expand and renovate the Hiawatha Public Library! Tour the library and hear from Library Director Jeaneal Weeks about how these plans will help us better serve the citizens of Hiawatha, without raising taxes!